Hackers attack Czech foreign ministry's email accounts

The email accounts of Czech Foreign Ministry were attacked by hackers, and one of the attacks succeeded, said Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek on Tuesday.

Zaoralek said that experts say the hacker attacks on Czech foreign ministry's email accounts must have been committed by another country. He said the ministry had monitored the unknown hackers' attacks in its system since the beginning of January.

The hackers managed to get into dozens of email boxes of the ministerial staff, including that of the deputy ministers and the minister himself.

A huge amount of data in the email boxes were downloaded by the hackers. Zaoralek stressed that the hackers had not got into the internal communication network of the ministry where they could have access to secret information.

Zaoralek said Czech National Security Office (NBU) was assigned to investigate further details and find the identity of the hackers. A special working group led by the NBU, which includes experts and representatives of the government office, are working out ways to prevent the future risks. He said the ministerial system is safe again currently.

Zaoralek said he had discussed the affair with Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka.

According to Zaoralek, Czech Foreign Ministry was targeted by hackers for a long time, facing thousands of attacks on access passwords every day.

source: Xinhua